A log book for the devising/research process of:
'A Performance of Original Songs' -
3rd Year Theatre Studies Project -
Warwick University

Sunday, November 13

Work in progress..

Ok, the ideas are forming, i just have to do LOADS of work now! I've been thinking both about the nature of a work in progress show in general, and about the specific content..

When I was little I used to like rearranging my room. I would take every single thing off the shelves and out of the cupboards and put it all over teh floor. The room would look way worse than when I started. A huge jumble mess. This is the stage I think this project is at now. All the research and thoughts and music all over floor of my mind in a big heap. And I think this is a healthy and important stage of the process and that the work in progress show should reflect this. I won't give away too much, but I hopefully it should convey to the audience the main themes and streams of thought and the direction the project is taking and the beginnings of the songwriting/singing/performance work which take place in term two. Though the whole piece will be more a collage, a compliation of all the different things that have been going on in my mind, i think it will inevitably be quite theatrical, because of the studio space, and because i have an audience, and because in looking at the nature of performance there will be a high awareness of the performative element of presentation, and I think theatre is also created by the perseption and expectations of those watching others. It will be very interesting to see the difference in 'performance' however, between reading extracts of writing/speaking about the project to singing songs/parts of songs - and how to move from one to the other.

By the end of cleaning my room everything would be perfectly arranged in the cupboards and on the shelves. Though this sometimes took me a long time, and I had to spend some days with things all over my floor, it was worth it, and the end result was beautiful and new. And at that stage, hopefully, I will do my final performance.